Abstract
It has been found that ferroelectric Sr1−xBaxNb2O6 has a very large pyroelectric coefficient at room temperature for 0.25 < x < 0.5. This suggested that the material may be useful as a detector of infrared radiation. A detector, constructed with a value of x=0.33 was successfully used at 300°K to detect single pulses of 10.6‐μ radiation from a Q‐switched CO2 laser with a rise time of less than 30 nsec. Detectors with a low frequency responsivity of better than 104 V/W and a minimum detectable power of 4 × 10−9 W‐cm−1‐cps−1/2 are easily constructed. Methods of improving on these results are discussed.